A Question of Trust
by DharmaMotorPool
Summary: For LostInLost's Scene It Challenge; A dissection of James' changing feelings towards Juliet during a tender moment in The Little Prince, episode 5x04.


For James Ford, trust was not an easy thing to come by. It was not something he gave away as readily as he did his body. No, trust was a much more difficult thing to earn from the abrasive southerner. The _most_ difficult.

In his entire lifetime, up to that point, James could not honestly say there had ever been _anyone_ he'd trusted completely. Hell, he had a tough enough time even trusting him_self_, let alone an outsider, and he was alright with that. He was getting by just fine as a lone wolf, he always had.

This one night – this _one_ conversation – changed all that.

It wasn't just the conversation itself; the events leading up to it were a contributing factor, as well. Nevertheless, James found himself sitting on the beach, back rested against the hull of the outrigger, next to the one person he'd known for a fact he'd _never_ trust – Juliet Burke. She was an Other, she was the enemy, the biggest outsider of them all. She had tasered him, helped the Others lock him in a cage, forced him to work on some '_runway for the aliens_'. She was most definitely _not_ to be trusted.

So why did he?

There were multiple explanations. She was a doctor. She'd betrayed her leader and followed them. She had a knack for calming him down when he became unruly. Just hours ago, she had picked up a rifle and prevented him from being shot by whoever was on that other outrigger. Yes, James had several reasons to place his trust in Juliet, but the precise thing that cemented his faith in her could be pinpointed to one moment, one _sentence_.

"Why don't you tell me now?"

The question took James by surprise. No one had ever treated him that way, with such respect, as an equal, the way she did. No one ever made him talk as much or feel as vulnerable as she did. Usually, the moment he got testy, had too much of an attitude, people dropped whatever subject they were trying to pursue. No one liked to deal with his brash behavior, no one cared enough to delve deeper, to ask _why_ he was feeling a certain way. No one had the patience. No one but her.

And so he opened up. He told her what it had felt like to see Kate again, but the funny thing was that all the while, telling this story about a woman he had _thought_ he loved, the only one really on his mind was the one he was telling it to. Yes, sure, he still felt things for Kate that he couldn't explain, but in that moment, with one simple question, Juliet _Not-to-be-Trusted_ Burke became the first and only person he knew he could rely on.

It was also Juliet's willingness to discuss this matter that impressed him. He knew she'd never quite seen eye-to-eye with Kate. Hell, she probably had the same kind of feelings for Jack that he was having about Kate right now. He made a mental note to ask her about it later, if they ever made it through all this. He understood that Kate Austen was probably the very _last_ item on the list of things Juliet wanted to talk about (aside from Ben Linus, perhaps), yet there she was, asking him about her just because she knew it was something he needed to get off his chest.

She asked why he hadn't reached out to Kate; why he had let the opportunity to talk to her slip away. When he told her _what's done is done,_ he meant it. Kate was gone, and for the first time, he began thinking that it was best that way. In the last 24 hours alone, he'd achieved a stronger bond with Juliet than he had in three months with Kate. That in and of itself told him that Kate hadn't been right for him. Maybe Juliet could be. Her level-headedness certainly had gotten through to him on more than one occasion.

Connecting to another human being had always been easy for James, on the physical level. _Emotionally_, however, was a different story. How had this woman, this "Other", this _outsider_, gotten him to open up? It couldn't have been an easy feat; James knew himself well enough to understand that if she could get through to him, there was _much_ more to this woman than he'd initially thought.

Juliet seemed to know exactly how to navigate the walls he'd built. No one else had ever come close to scaling them. He'd never felt so vulnerable, and yet he was completely secure. Somehow, he knew that she was different. She wouldn't hold anything he said against him. She had his back.

He stared at her for a moment in admiration, his eyes inadvertently focused on her mouth. The impulse to kiss her might have come to fruition, had it not been for the crimson liquid forming a trail to the lips he intended to claim.

'_Son of a bitch'_ was his first thought. _'Not now, damn it, not her'_ was his second. _'I won't lose her now' _was his third.

The kiss would have to wait.


End file.
